Revision as of 15:40, 8 January 2018

The re-release box art.

King's Quest is an adventure game by Sierra Online, originally released in 1984 for the PCjr, but later ported to several other platforms. The game is a pioneer of the PC graphical adventure genre that remained hugely popular for another decade in the industry and spawned many rivals, most of whom made better games than Sierra. After a sequel was released, Sierra re-released King's Quest in 1987 with the title King's Quest I: Quest For the Crown with new box art and a slightly improved program.

Contents

Status

I own a digital release of the game through Steam. I have beaten it, though not with a full score.

Review

Overall: 3/10

Best Version: Remake using the SCI engine.

Good

The game has a fair amount of charm, incorporating various fairy tales.

Though very dated now, the game is a pioneer in the PC-based adventure game. Hundreds of games have used this game's concept of a single screen as a room and walking off-screen into the next room.

The AGI engine was well-made and served to make about another dozen Sierra games.

Bad

There are far too many ways to die!

By using fairy tales as a basis for several of the puzzles, the answers were often very obvious.

Some of the monsters aren't really puzzles they just get in the way, like the wolf, troll, and thieving gnome.

The jump, duck, and swim buttons are annoying, and I'm glad they got rid of them in the sequels.

The wrap-around world layout is dumb. It basically means the world is a tiny torus floating in space.

Although it was acceptable for the day, the graphics are not very professionally drawn. There is even the occasional uncolored pixel that was overlooked.

For some reason, the programmers added a way to drop items. Dropped items cannot be picked back up again, and therefore causes you to get stuck. They wisely removed the ability in later versions of the game.

There are a couple walking-dead scenarios in the game, most of which are caused by the gnome, but I've always just reloaded if he every robbed me.

Ugly

Too many of the puzzles are really just walking hazards. That's not adventure, that's keyboard dexterity. And, since you're given unlimited saves, the only purpose they serve is to slow the game down.

Box Art

This is the original box art for the PCjr release. The castle in the background is pretty cool, but the knight appears to be seriously misshapen. This also paints the game as an action fighter, which it clearly is not.

This box art was used in the first couple ports to the Apple II, Atari ST, and IBM PC. It's an interesting picture of the game's three treasure, but doesn't really convey anything else about the game.

This art was used on the later releases for the Atari ST, and IBM PC, and for the Amiga. It showcases the three treasures, though Graham looks a bit weird.

This was the final box art used for home computers. It replaces the ugly yellow-brown background with a more pleasing tan color.

The Sega Master System saw a much later release, and this box art is probably my favorite. It too has the three treasures, but also some of the villains you face, and Graham, though wearing goofy Robinhood-esque clothes, is fitting of the part.